Today's employment environment is changing out of all recognition and changing faster than ever. This was true even before covid-19 turned everything upside down but that was just the accelerator of what was already underway.
Some studies around the world indicate that the average person starting out today can expect at least six separate careers in their working life. (The meaning of ?a separate career? in this context is where at least 50% of the job content changes).
Such changes hardly happened at all just a generation ago. Never mind six times.
The same studies conclude that the average tenure of these people will be only less than two years per position.
That's quite a bit less than it is today, and a lot less than just a decade ago.
And these trends seem to be applicable worldwide.
Furthermore, they also foretell that 60% of jobs that will exist in 10 years? time do not exist today.
Huh?
What does that mean?
Surely this cannot be true!
Well, the answer to people asking this question is clear: ICT ? (which I have mentioned in other reports, representing the perfect storm of 3 converging trends: Internationalisation, Competition and Technology and these career trends described above are especially arising from Technology.
Today's (and tomorrow's) technology is changing the world of jobs faster and further than at any time in history and the rate of change is accelerating.
Nothing is as it was, and it will not be that way ever again.
Alice said nothing: she had sat down with her face in her hands, wondering
if anything would ever happen in a natural way again
Lewis Carroll
Take career changing as an example.
As general employment conditions change throughout the world, changing careers is not the exception to the rule that it once was.
Today, people often change their employers, their job titles, their employment basis (for example employee to self-employed) etc.
However, up until recently, relatively few people changed their careers.
Used to be that people would decide on a career and that was it for life.
As I mentioned in other posts, the first decade of my own professional career was squarely in that category, following on from my dad?s (and both my grandfathers?) example.
I have certainly made up for it since.
I was able to identify that I am what we career coaches call a ?portfolio worker?. I enjoy (and can effectively handle) doing several things, sometimes all at once, rather than one type of work all the time.
I have spent long and ongoing periods of being a management consultant, business coach, wellness entrepreneur (water, air, nutrition), life/career coach, social entrepreneur (shrimps), author, professional speaker, corporate trainer, writer/copywriter, as well as my foundational career in finance.
Note: I am not recommending YOU (or anyone) go for this kind of profile, even if you relate to being a portfolio worker. For one thing, it gets very tough to write all this on a single CV! LOL!
There was a time when people who did change careers used to be considered unstable, untrustworthy, irresponsible and/or desperate. Mavericks and ne?er-do-wells.
This has been changing over the years but there is still a fair degree of skepticism and suspicion around such folks.
Most people are not prepared
Obviously, there are a number of factors to consider before you even reach the point of asking the question of whether you should change careers.
If you have already decided that you want to change, you probably have gone through some sort of self-examination, and you would be very aware of why you want to change.
Being bored or being in a rut may mean that your choice of this current position was not ideal, and it may be a good reason to change something, but a change in career or position may not necessarily be the answer.
Look at the jobs your parents did or the job which you did 10 years ago.
They may not exist at all today, or if they do, they will likely be unrecognisable from what they were back then.
Then, consider the job you are in today.
Did it exist 10 years ago?
If it did, is it the same as it was when you started?
Is it the same as even three years ago?
The above studies simply recognise these trends and extrapolate them out over time.
Take an everyday example: Most people have a bank account.
The way people accessed banking services just a few years ago was to go to the physical premises of the bank, queue up, fill in some forms and complete their transactions.
Today, you can stick a piece of plastic in a wall to get your cash and also conduct many of those transactions.
Or you can log in to your account online or phone and conduct those same transactions and in fact, many more types of transactions than you could before.
Of course, none of this is news to you.
However, reflect for a moment on the switch in job structures associated with these changes.
The bank tellers and clerks are out. So are the people who print the forms. The landlords of the premises where the banks are located are affected too. And all their respective ecosystems
On the other hand, software developers and ATM maintenance people are in.
Just a few years ago, those new jobs did not exist. There was no such thing as an ATM maintenance person because there was no such thing as an ATM.
Just look around and see how many everyday examples you can observe where these trends are already at work.
Loads of them right?
And he number is increasing all the time.
This is the world we are now living in.
Are you paying attention to these changes?
Are you adapting?
If not, you better beware.
Because those dark clouds you see on the horizon are going to get closer and darker.
Of course, there?s much more to these themes than I can include in this article but stay tuned for future blogposts here.
If you prefer to get it all in one place (and much more career analysis and advice),
you can download my best-selling book
DO WHAT YOU LOVE, LOVE WHAT YOU DO
at a special member?s price.
Till next time, always remember I am rooting for you!
With love & blessings
Peter Fleming FCMA
Your Career Success Coach